IBD Kitty Update and Realistic Expectations

My cat was diagnosed with IBD and we had a week a few months back when he was in terrible pain.  After a switch to limited ingredient food and prednisolone he was pretty much back to normal.  

For the last two months he's been on half a tab of pred a day, and this week I tried going down to a third, but he's starting to eat again with the hair standing up on his spine.  Now this might be a coincidence (I've noticed it before over the past few months),  but I still wonder if he's getting the relief he should from the IBD symptoms.  He runs and jumps and drinks a fair amount of water.  I hate to change his food again as I had a difficult time getting him to eat the other flavors of LID.  I'm considering having the test run again that the vet did for stomach inflammation, especially now that we have a baseline to compare it to.  

I just want to know what's realistic  for the course of the disease and that he's not suffering.  He is always hungry - the first one to put a paw on my cheek in the morning.    

Each IBD kitty is different.  It's great if they can come completely off the steroid and some holistic practitioners believe that is always possible, I am not a vet but from my own experience I don't believe it is always possible.  My IBD kitty has been on a steroid for a little over four years and his IBD is well controlled, not perfectly.  He goes to the vet every six months for an exam and gets blood work done every six months.  The blood work is mainly because he had fatty liver just before he started on the steroid.  There have been a couple of instances of constipation, which he is prone to and lately some weight loss.  Another ultrasound showed nothing other than the signs of inflammation that was controlled for the most part.  We are now trying a probiotic.  He also takes a half tab daily.

I know there can be issues with long term steroid use but I figure if that happens we will deal with it then